1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of pick-up devices for animal litter, trash or the like, and more particularly to a pick-up device having foldable or rotatable portions enabling the device to be arranged in a compact manner for commercial displays, and which further includes a trigger mechanism having a bail lock, and a storage compartment for holding a quantity of bags used in the procedure of animal litter or trash pick-up.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
In the past, it has been a conventional practice to provide pick-up devices for automatically grabbing and holding animal litter, trash or the like. Problems and difficulties have been encountered with such conventional devices because components of the device extend outwardly from the main body of the device so that it is difficult to arrange the device for commercial display in the marketplace or to be forwarded through a mail service. Conventional pick-up devices are not compact and are generally not suitable for commercial display. Furthermore, most prior pick-up devices do not have a bail locking means for preventing premature release of a loaded collection bag which is generally carried on the device. Also, it is difficult for the user to release the bag for ultimate disposal in a refuse container or the like. Still a further problem when employing conventional trash or animal litter pick-up devices resides in providing a supply of bags, such as a roll of bags, in the body of the device itself so that the bags and the device provide a unitary construction and the bags are available for use without the user having to store the bags in a remote location. The bags should be stored on a roll and means should be provided for permitting the bags to be pulled from storage and separated on an individual basis for usage.
Therefore, a long-standing need has existed to provide a novel animal litter or trash pick-up device, which includes a storage arrangement for a multiple bag supply and which will permit removal of an individual bag from the supply for assembly onto spreadable bails carried on the device. Also, a releasable locking mechanism should be included for controlling the bail separation mechanism.